Don’t subsidize buses

You have probably already forgotten another little ol’ tax up for a vote today, the one for the Arts Center. Trying to keep up with them is confusing. The bus tax I am talking about here is in the next few weeks.

Not that you have to be there. Just stay home; have some more coffee.

Public buses are a large public expense, and about to become bigger if this proposed tax increase is approved. I note that at least two of the proponents refer to three million riders. My own calculations tell me the number is probably closer to about 11,000 daily users in the entire county.

We don’t regulate taxi companies all that much, and their customers seem to be getting good service. Why not license private companies to provide public bus service and the cities just get out of it? The costs of maintaining and subsidizing it would be eliminated, and the riders would still get the same service, maybe better. It’s not free, you know; the riders still have to pay. Why should the taxpayers have to keep subsidizing a service that costs so much and serves so few? The answer is they shouldn’t.

The same is true for all of the restaurants in Little Rock and North Little Rock that have to collect and pay the 2 percent hotel- restaurant tax on every meal they serve. That’s another municipal flim- flam that everyone pays but which benefits only the few downtown hotels and restaurants that have the convention business.

Find out who your elected city director is and give them two ears full. And don’t vote for them anymore. Term limits for all. Pass it on! WALTER SKELTON

Little Rock